LegiStorm

A former staffer to Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) is back with her old boss, and this time she brings experience as a banking lobbyist.

Jen Newman is now a senior legislative assistant and staff director to the Senate Banking Committee's Economic Policy Subcommittee under Kennedy, the subcommittee's ranking member. She comes from the Independent Community Bankers of America. As assistant vice president for congressional relations, she was a part of the trade group's federal lobbying program, which the ICBA spent $4.5 million to run last year.

Before leaving for ICBA a year ago, Newman was a legislative assistant in Kennedy's personal office. She's also worked for Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

It took him a decade out of office, but ex-Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) has finally made his first official pass through the revolving door.

Sullivan registered as a first-time lobbyist through SBL Strategies, the consulting and lobbying firm that he co-founded after his House service came to an end in 2013. He's lobbying on unspecified "re-licensing" issues for Oklahoma's Grand River Dam Authority agency, per a recent disclosure.

Sullivan joins the ranks of 138 other ex-members who have passed through the revolving door in the last decade. Another seven current members are former federal lobbyists.

There's a new Trent Lott in the Senate.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) added Trent Lott III as a staff assistant in his D.C. office this month. He's the grandson of former Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and a recent graduate of Southern Methodist University. His father, Trent "Chet" Lott Jr., is a former lobbyist, musician and amateur polo player. The youngest Trent Lott played polo at Southern Methodist University.

Grandfather Lott stepped down from the Senate in 2007 and formed the now-defunct Breaux-Lott Leadership Group with former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). He now works as a senior partner and lobbyist at Crossroads Strategies.

Senate Budget Committee Republicans have hired the executive director of a conservative judicial-advocacy group to be a part of the minority's investigations team.

Before his addition to the committee this month, Jace Pimentel spent the last year heading the Judicial Action Group's operations. He also lobbied on judicial nominations and court packing for the group.

Pimentel is now investigative counsel under Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Grassley, in his first term as the committee's top Republican, is assembling an investigative unit to focus on the Biden administration. The senator's other investigative-counsel hires include Mary Woodard, who is a former legislative assistant to Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and ex-Colorado assistant attorney general, as well as former FTI Consulting attorney James Layne.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's (D-R.I.) Budget Committee has turned to a veteran environmental lobbyist to help take on the fossil-fuel industry.

Matt Bolden joined the committee from the Climate Leadership Council, where he was most recently director for policy and government relations. He worked as an environmental lobbyist through Americans for Carbon Dividends, CLC's advocacy arm.

Bolden is now climate-policy adviser to Budget Committee Democrats. Whitehouse has indicated that climate change would be a top priority in his first term as committee chair.

The committee has also added Jonathan Misk, the 117th Congress's staff director to the now-defunct House Oversight and Reform Committee's Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee, to continue Big Oil investigations that the Oversight and Reform Committee (now the Oversight and Accountability Committee) began last session. Misk's title with the Budget Committee is oversight director and senior counsel.